The General and the Phantom (Esdeath x Reaper)
by Ash N Bones
Summary: When the emperor orders general Esdeath to hunt down a shadow-like monster, she locates it inside a dark forest, but what she soon discovers is that there is another being inside the forest. One that resembles a reaper, and is an enemy of the shadow-like monster. Could there be a possible Alliance formed between Esdeath and the reaper? oneshot.


**Author's Notes: Okay, here is my second one shot. Let me know what ya guys think. :) When I was thinking of a next one shot to post, for some reason I really couldn't get this ship of Esdeath and Reaper out of my head. Weird right? Sure it's a strange ship, but I think it could work, and It definitely would be an interesting couple if you think about both of their personalities. Yeah... I ship Esdeath with Reaper now, and you should too!**

Esdeath was riding her horse deep down inside of the forest. She had a couple dozen army from the capital behind her. Before her departure from the capital, the young emperor had given her a mission. One that she was confident she could fulfill. For a long couple of weeks, there had been sightings of a strange monster who have been murdering hundreds of people both in and outside of the capital. No one had a clue what that strange monster was, but they soon discovered that it fed on their souls like a reaper of some sort. No one was fortunate enough to see it's face and live to tell. Having his people being decreased more and more everyday, the young emperor had finally decided to have the thing hunted down. Though all the men he had sent to kill the thing had all failed in their attempt. Not even the bounty he had put on it's head was enough to persuade the many warriors and assassins to go after it. Finally, being filled with desperation and fear, he had decided to send his most deadly and strongest general after it. A general he knew who might be crazy enough to stop this thing from killing his people any further. Esdeath. Naturally, she accepted. In the past she had killed hundreds, thousands of beasts. This was no different. In fact, she was looking forward to this hunt. She was confident that she could conquer the thing.

A couple weeks had past by ever since she had accepted this dark and dangerous mission. Not once had she ever encounter it, but according to her sources, the monster-like reaper found it's way in a dark forest. There was many campers in a secluded area in the forest. It made sense why it chose to roam here.

"General, are you sure the creature is here?" one of her men asked, weary from the long journey.

Esdeath remained silent for a long moment before saying "Positive, our source says that there was a strange figure entering the forest."

The man released a deep and irritated sigh. "We've been in this forest for weeks now, with no stops and rest. We haven't seen anything matching the description. How can we be so sure that the source is even reliable?"

Esdeath slowly turned her head to her side, and saw the man riding alongside her. "You're not chickening out, are you?" She asked, with such a cold and dark voice.

That voice put a shiver of fear up the man's spine."Uh- no, general," he gulped.

"What I hate more than cowards... Is having a coward on my own team. We are to search every inch of this forest til we find that creature. No stops, no breaks. We can't afford that. And if you have a problem with how I operate things here, just let me know and I'll kill you, but not before I have fun breaking your pitiful body."

The man found that he had sweat running down his face. The shiver up his spine still hadn't gone away. The man regretted bringing the whole thing up. The other men commended him on his bravery though. None of them dared speak to esdeath, unless spoken too. To them, she was one of the scariest thing on the planet. Though at the moment, they weren't quite sure what they were scared of most, the monster in this forest or her.

Suddenly Esdeath raised her hand, and made a gesture which meant stop. Her men immediately stopped their horses in their tracks, awaiting further instructions from their general.

"What is it, general?" One of them asked.

"Shhh idiot," she whispered, not even looking at him. Esdeath was positive that she heard something strange just a few seconds ago. She closed her eyes and focused her well trained ears on the sound. At first she could only hear the slight sound of the wind, the sound of birds tweeting, and the leaves falling from the trees and onto the ground, but suddenly, deep inside of the forest, she heard a strange screeching sound. It wasn't human. The sound... It was so demonic-like. There was no doubt about it, that was the monster she was sent here to kill.

The men behind her, murmured in fear. "Is that the reaper?" one of them asked.

Esdeath felt something slightly in her heart. She knew this feeling all too well. It was the same feeling she got everytime she had killed a beast. It was the rush of the hunt. She liked it, and wanted to enjoy it for as long as she could. _**Let's see what you're made of.**_ "Charge at the enemy!" Esdeath commanded her army.

At first her men didn't respond to her order. Esdeath turned around scowling, and saw her army, trembling with fear. She wasn't at all pleased with their cowardice. She looked at them in disgust and displeasure. _**Surely this wasn't the emperor's best.**_ She thought. _**How dare they call themselves soldiers.**_ "My, my, what do we have here?" Esdeath grinned slightly. "A bunch of pathetic useless cowards."

"General please, if you send us off, we'll all die!" One of the men pleaded to her.

"Well with a mind set like that, you surely will die," she scoffed. "You all call yourselves soldiers? Pfff... Pathetic. The great emperor sent us here for a reason. We are to kill that thing, and if you aren't willing to follow his orders, then that means you're the enemy too. Now listen, you have two choices in front of you. You can either obey my command, or you can die along with that monster... Your choice."

The men could sense a dangerous and dark aura radiating from their general. That cold expression of hers sent shivers up their spines. They were so scared of the monster, but they were just as much scared of their general as well. Which choice could they possibly make? Either one would have them end up dying. The men conversed among each other for a few seconds, then ultimately decided to obey their general's command. If they were lucky enough, they just might survive this, especially with the general by their side. As they finally made their choice, esdeath slightly frowned. Part of her was looking forward to her men betraying her. Part of her wanted to tear them apart. She would now only get that pleasure from the monster.

As her men charged forward, esdeath remained still, waiting for her men to draw that thing out. Then she would attack. Her men charged a couple yards into the forest. They were no longer in her sight. Suddenly, everything was silent for a moment. Then she could hear the tormented screams of her men. She could hear the sound of flesh being torn apart. The sound of blood being splashed everywhere.

"General help us!" Her men screamed for her.

She smiled at their pain. At their uselessness. Esdeath, slowly dismounted from her horse. She started to walk slowly to the area where her men had charged to. The smile was still on her face. She was enjoying herself too much.

"General where are you!?"

She laughed at their pathetic screams. She enjoyed hearing them beg for her to save them. She got pleasure from it.

Finally as a few minutes passed by, she walked into a clearing in the forest. She walked closer and stopped to look at all her now bloody dead men who were torn apart onto the ground. _**Impressive, looks like It really did a number on you guys.**_ As she raised her head, she found that she was surrounded by an army of strange monsters. They were in a shadow form. They had sharp fangs and claws. Their eyes had a glowy demonic red color. Their form were almost that of a werewolf. Esdeath could hear them growling from the pit of their stomach. _**So this entire time, there was actually more than one.**_ Esdeath couldn't quite believe the number of the monsters, but it made sense. The population was decreasing at a rapid rate, and it was all caused by this army of shadow-like monsters. Being ambushed like this, would scare the strongest of warriors, but Esdeath wasn't scared. She was confident that she could take them all.

Before she would attack, a strange cloud of smoke formed near her. Suddenly the cloud of smoke was forming into a person. She could see the shape of a man... Or something. Finally the cloud of smoke had cleared up and standing before esdeath, was no man. It was **death**. It wore a long black robe. It wore a hood over it's head. And it's face was a skull. Esdeath scanned it's body and found it had weapons. Strapped onto it's chest and around it's hip was shotgun shells. On both side of it's hip was unique looking shotguns, that had the letters 'RPNT' imprinted onto it. Esdeath was intrigued by this thing. What was it doing here? Could it possibly be linked to those monsters?

"Get down onto the ground!" it yelled at her, putting it's hand on her shoulder, forcing her to the ground, on her knees.

it's voice... It sounded strange to her. It definitely was a voice of a man, but it sounded strange, different. Like there was no hint of humanity in it. his voice was deep, dark, and distorted. She didn't expect him to speak to her, let alone push her onto the ground.

"Death blossom ready," he said. He then grabbed hold of his duel shot guns.

Esdeath wondered if those shotguns were even powerful enough to stop those shadow monsters.

Suddenly the death-like creature spun around repeatedly in a perfect 360 degree angle. As he did so, he aimed his shotguns directly at the shadow monsters. As he fired at them, He yelled out "Die! Die! Die! Die!"

The creatures all fell one by one. The death-like creature moved his arms and fired his shot guns at a speed that no human could possibly reach. As The shadow monsters were decreasing in numbers, they quickly tried charging him all at once, but the death-like creature was too fast for them. He fired his shot guns rapidly all around his surroundings, eliminating everything in it's path. They all fell one by one, just like dominoes.

Esdeath raised her eyebrows as she was witnessing the power of this death-like creature. She was amazed that he was able to kill them all in an instant. She was impressed by his power. _**Who or what exactly is this thing?**_ She wondered. He started laughing at their pitiful deaths.

"Hahahahaha!"

Esdeath smiled at his personality. She kind of enjoyed it, actually.

There was now silence for a moment. They both were looking down at the shadow corpses. The corpses slowly disintegrated, leaving no trace of their existence. The death-like creature holstered his shot guns on his hips.

He then turned around, looking down at esdeath. He just stared at her for a moment, then he extended his arm to her, offering her his reaching hand. Esdeath smiled, and grabbed his hand, and he lifted her up to her feet. Their bodies were just mere inches of touching. Esdeath tried looking into his empty eye sockets. She wondered if she could at least see something deep inside. She saw nothing, but darkness. She examined his skulled face, closely. She putted her hand on his face made of bones. She brushed her fingers across. She discovered that the skulled face, was actually a mask. She was curious what this death-like creature looked like underneath. Was it a man?

"Remove your pathetic fingers from my face or I'll have to kill you," he commanded her.

Esdeath slightly grinned. This nobody commanding a general, she found amusement in it.

"Make me," she said, with that evil smile of hers.

The death-like creature growled, and forcefully removed her hand from his face. Esdeath had no idea who he was, but she was starting to like him. He started walking away.

"Stop!" She commanded him.

"I don't take orders from little girls," he growled, still walking.

Esdeath scowled at him "I ordered you to stop!" She yelled out.

He slightly chuckled, then slowly stopped.

"Who are you?" She asked, still intrigued by him.

He slowly turned around, looking at her. She walked up to him, til they were face to face again.

"Why should I tell you anything?" He asked her.

"Because if you don't, then I'll have to take you to my dungeon," she replied.

"Oh...?"

"There I'll personally execute all types of deadly, and very, very painful tortures known to man. Every man think they know what true pain is... Until I'm through with them. I will enjoy hearing your agonizing screams as I tear apart your flesh. Hell is nothing compared to what I will do to you." Esdeath leaned closer to the death-like creature and gently whispered into his ear. "And by the time I'm done with you, you'll be begging for me to kill you."

As she leaned back, the death-like creature started laughing loudly and hysterically.

"I think I like you," he said, his laughter dying down.

Esdeath looked perplexed. That kind of talk usually scared all her enemies into telling her pretty much anything, but as she looked at this death-like creature, she realized that there probably was nothing in this world that scared him. He was kind of daunting looking, and She liked it.

Reaper was amused by Esdeath that he decided to answer her question.

"I go by the name of reaper," he answered her.

"Reaper?" She repeated the name. "As in the grim reaper?"

He slightly chuckled. "Something like that."

"What exactly are you?" She asked, remembering the way he killed all the shadow monsters. "The way you killed them, was quite impressive."

"Let's just say... I'm different than your average joe," he replied.

She raised an eyebrow, not exactly sure what that meant.

Reaper turned his head around, looking at his surroundings. He then looked back at esdeath and asked "Where am I?"

"You're not from around here, are you?"

He shook his head. "None of this looks familiar to me."

"You're outside of the capital," she said.

"The capital?" Reaper repeated her words.

"Yeah, we're a couple miles out of the emperor's capital city."

Reaper backed up a bit in shock. _**This can't be happening.**_ Reaper couldn't believe her words. The way she spoke meant that he was several years back into the past.

Before all of this, reaper remembered charging into the Overwatch headquarters with his team. While his team distracted most of the Overwatch members, he had made his way into a secured room. Inside was a high tech device, that tracer was developing with Winston. The device was highly experimental, and Reaper had heard that It had the ability to travel back into time. He would use this device for his advantage and destroy Overwatch. While in the room, he found Soldier 76 in there with him. Soldier 76 had anticipated he would breach this secured room. Reaper filled with hatred toward Soldier 76, he naturally fought him. After a couple minutes of firing their guns and fighting each other, Reaper somehow managed to shoot Soldier 76 in the lower abdomen, he then knocked him out with an uppercut. While he was down, Reaper made his way to the experimental device, hoping to uncover it's secrets. What he didn't know was that Soldier 76 was still conscious and before he knew it, he had shot his Helix Rockets straight at him. The blast had damaged the experimental device beyond repair. The device started going haywire and caused a small black hole to form behind reaper, and once it had sucked him inside, it closed completely last thing reaper had remembered, was falling down into a forest. There he had encountered the shadow monsters and have been killing them all morning. Shortly after, he had met and saved esdeath.

"Whats wrong with you?" Esdeath asked, wondering why Reaper stumbled backwards.

 _ **Great. This is just great.**_ Reaper came to the sudden realization that he was several years back into the past, with no way of returning to his original timeline."This isn't my world," he said.

Esdeath raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"I don't belong here. I'm from a different timeline. I guess I should say, I'm from the future."

Reaper explained his reasons of popping into this world. Esdeath nodded as she finally understood.

"Now it's my turn to ask the questions... Who are you?"

Esdeath smiled. "Beg me to tell you," she said.

Reaper stood frozen for a moment. _**She wants me to beg? Me, Reaper? Who does she think she is?**_ "I'm not some stray dog. I never beg. Ever!" Reaper pulled out one of his shot guns, and pushed the cold barrel against Esdeath's forehead. "You on the other hand... Will."

Esdeath laughed a little. She then licked her lips. Reaper was getting more and more intrigued by this female. She was clearly tough and dominant. She even didn't seem to be afraid of a gun pointed at her face. Reaper grabbed her by the neck, and squeezed his fingers around it. He then lifted her in the air. Reaper noticed that she was still smiling, even when he was choking her. _**This girl is crazy.**_ He thought. _**What kind of world did I end up in?**_

"Tell me who you are!" Reaper commanded her.

Esdeath tried speaking, but nothing came out of her mouth. Reaper suddenly released his grip from her neck and she fell to her knees. She coughed a little, then slowly rose to her feet.

"I am general Esdeath of the empire, at your service," she finally answered.

"You're a general?" Reaper asked.

"Can't you tell by my uniform?" She smiled.

"Well general Esdeath... What are you doing outside of the empire?"

"Those shadow monsters that you killed. I was ordered to kill them."

"I see... Looks like I did your job for you."

"For saving the life of the general I could reward you handsomely. Though I was never in any danger."

"Are you sure about that?"

Esdeath nodded.

Suddenly from behind her, a shadow monster jumped toward her back, but reaper quickly grabbed her body and pulled it against his, and aimed his shotgun at the monster, then fired. The thing quickly disintegrated into nothingness.

Reaper turned his head to esdeath who he held close to his body.

"How bout now?" He asked.

If she could see his face, esdeath bet she would see a smug look on his face.

"I could sense that thing, long before it tried to attack me," she said. "I wasn't in any more danger than you are right now."

"Huh..?"

Esdeath quickly shoved reaper off her, as he was falling onto the ground, he quickly grabbed hold of her hand, causing her to fall on top of him.

"I think I like this position," he said, looking up at her.

Esdeath putted her finger where his lips should be and said "Well that makes two of us."

Esdeath quickly looked up and saw another shadow monster charging toward her and reaper. She quickly raised her hand and pointed it at the thing. She then projected a beam of ice out of her hand, and it hit the shadow monster. It slowly turned into a frozen popsicle.

"Whoa, you have ice powers?" Reaper asked.

Esdeath nodded as she slowly got off of reaper, and walked toward the frozen shadow monster. She raised her leg, then stomped her foot against the frozen shadow monster. The entire thing shattered into thousands of pieces.

"impressed?"

"not really," Reaper said, as he slowly stood up to his feet. "I already seen a girl with ice powers before... I hate her."

"Does that mean you hate me too?" Esdeath winked at him.

"I don't know yet," Reaper replied.

He scanned her entire body once more.

"But I'm liking what I'm seeing so far."

"Is that so...?"

As reaper walked toward Esdeath, they discovered that they were surrounded by even more shadow monsters than before. They pressed their backs against each other, as they were watching each other's flanks. Reaper quickly grabbed his duel shot guns. Esdeath prepared her icy hands for an attack.

"I have to return home," reaper said.

"As far as I'm concerned, you don't have a home anymore," Esdeath said.

Reaper knew her words were true. Without the experimental device, there was no way of returning home. There was especially no way he could find the needed parts in this somewhat primitive world. He was out of options.

"When we survive this, come with me back to the empire. The capital," Esdeath said.

"The empire?" Reaper repeated her words.

"You no longer have a place in your world. Instead... Join mine. I'm sure the emperor will grant you a place there. You might even be able to join the Jaegers. We could always use someone like you."

"A tempting offer from a tempting girl," he said. "What if I say no?"

"Then you'll be of no use to me, and I'll just have to kill you."

Her words made Reaper laugh.

"You are one interesting girl. Do you always have to get what you want?"

"Not always, but I like to have nice things."

"And is that what I'm to you. Nice?"

"You're... Not too bad."

"Haha, is there any perks to joining this team of yours?"

Esdeath smiled.

"Why don't you come and find out."

Reaper contemplated on her offer for a couple of seconds.

"Okay fine. I'm with ya, but only on one condition... I get to lead."

Esdeath laughed quite loudly. It sounded like a joke to her, but being with this reaper guy for as long as she had, she came to realize that he hardly ever joked. Esdeath was liking this reaper fella the more and more she hanged out with him. She had never met anyone who was just as brave, tough, and dominant as she before. He wasn't even afraid to speak freely around the Esdeath who was a feared general.

"Oh It's gonna be so much fun breaking you," she said. "You'll have to fight me for it."

Reaper only had one thing to say to that.

"I work the graveyard shift."

So as the two broke out into action, they killed hundreds of the shadow monsters with ease. They were actually a pretty good team together. Normally solo, both Esdeath and Reaper were a one man and woman army, but together, they were an army of two.

Reaper may have had no way of returning back to his world, but he had found a totally new one in which he could start over and begin a new. A world where Overwatch couldn't stop him. A world where he could possibly recreate in his own image. A world that he was quite certain he could conquer with Esdeath by his side.


End file.
